LeCroy Corp.’s new line of WaveMaster® 8 Zi-A digital oscilloscopes, Serial Data Analyzers and Disk Drive Analyzers—the 8 Zi-A Series—now provides up to 45 GHz of bandwidth and 120 GS/s of sample rate—the world’s highest bandwidth and fastest sample rate real-time oscilloscope—combined with 768 Megapoints of analysis memory. Additionally, the introduction of a model with 20 GHz bandwidth on four channels provides the highest performance and signal fidelity available on four measurement channels. On all models, acquisition capability can be doubled with the use of the Zi-8CH-SYNCH Oscilloscope Synchronization Kit, with all acquired channels displayed on a single display grid.
The 20 GHz bandwidth on each of the four channels makes the WaveMaster 8 Zi-A Series well suited for testing emerging 40/100 GbE DWDM devices and systems. It can be part of an optical DP-QPSK test system for measuring 100+ GbE, and to measure the electrical properties of multi-lane 40/100 GbE transmissions. The WaveMaster 8 Zi-A Series can also be used in 224+ Gb/s (56+ Gbaud) DP-QPSK, 16-QAM optical transmission research.
The standard sample rate is 120 GS/s for 45 GHz bandwidth, 80 GS/s for 25 to 30 GHz bandwidths and 40 GS/s on all 4 channels at 20 GHz bandwidth. For 4 to 20 GHz bandwidths, the standard sample rate is 40 GS/s on all four channels with an option to increase the sampling rate to 80 GS/s on two channels. All memory is available at full record lengths for analysis processing, 20 Mpts/ch is provided standard, with memory options up to 256 Mpts/ch available. In 120 and 80 GS/s mode, memory can be interleaved to 768 and 512 Mpts/ch.
The WaveMaster 8 Zi-A models utilize second generation silicon germanium (SiGe) components to ensure high performance. SiGe is the most widely adopted and deployed semiconductor fabrication process with many years of commercial deployment. Additionally, it has none of the thermal conductivity, reliability, yield, cost and other concerns that captive in-house processes must contend with. LeCroy’s 30 to 45 GHz 8 Zi-A models make use of sixth generation Digital Bandwidth Interleave (DBI) to effectively and reliably extend bandwidth without the deleterious effects of bandwidth “boosting”.
LeCroy has designed the 8 Zi-A Series as a single hardware platform, supporting all nine models spanning from 4 to 45 GHz of bandwidth. This means engineers can leverage their investment and stay current with emerging high-speed technologies and serial data standards by purchasing only the bandwidth needed for current designs, and upgrading to additional bandwidth as needs change. Customers who had previously purchased an 8 Zi model can upgrade to 8 Zi-A performance and bandwidth.
